1. Technological Field
This disclosure relates to computer systems and more particularly to managed computer systems in multi-computer environments running virtual desktops.
2. Background
Companies that have large work forces struggle with the cost and complexity of managing their diverse collection of desktops, laptops, servers, and other computing devices. While they may use technologies to help them provision or build new desktops, it doesn't take long before each of these computers diverge, creating potentially tens if not hundreds of thousands of individual computers requiring management. Companies attempt to address this problem by using complex software distribution automation systems, yet due to the unique and unmanaged characteristics of desktops these solutions commonly fail ten to twenty percent of the time resulting in large numbers of open trouble tickets every time they attempt a patch or upgrade. While Information Technology (IT) departments would prefer to freeze or lock down desktops so users cannot change them, employees generally lose productivity and job satisfaction when faced with uncustomizable desktops, resulting in IT allowing various amounts of end user control. Further, repairing broken desktops, including those that no longer work well because users have installed software that has degraded the stability of the machine is complex requiring highly skilled IT staff. More commonly, rather than repairing the desktop, IT will simply install a new gold image, or fresh and complete copy of a computer system, which may cause the computer user to lose extended time reverting and reconfiguring their computer and recovering from lost data.
Desktop virtualization is a recent trend in managing large numbers of desktops. One solution is to provide a virtual desktop infrastructure and host desktops from a networked server. Such virtualization provides many benefits for desktop management, including centralizing data, improving reliability, simplifying provisioning and improving mean-time-to-repair. However, when it comes to the operating system, applications and user data, virtualization generally only moves the desktop from a physical computer to a virtual one. Instead of operating a unique computer desktop with operating system and applications installed on a local machine, computer users operate a unique computer desktop with operating system and applications installed on a remote server. This may provide a centralized location for IT staff to manage all systems, but IT administrators still struggle with managing vast numbers of unique machines. Computer users gain mobility by being able to connect and access their unique desktop from any system able to connect to the desktop server, but this desktop is generally tied into the system and requires high speed connectivity to the server to function.
Another desktop virtualization solution is to operate desktops on local computers on top of hypervisor platforms. The functioning desktop communicates with the hypervisor, which runs either as a Type 2 hypervisor on top of an already running operating system or as a Type 1 hypervisor directly on local hardware. Type 2 is the most common desktop solution, and adds the requirement of operating and maintaining the local operating system on top of which the hypervisor runs. Both Type 1 and Type 2 provide benefits of increased mobility of desktops between physical machines running the same hypervisor platform and enabling multiple operating systems on the same physical hardware. Management and maintenance of such desktops face similar management and maintenance problems as standard, non-virtualized computer desktops.